S.D. had fastest-rising crime rate in 5-year period

That 2007-12 analysis makes state more convinced shift from prisons is right move

Jan. 4, 2014

Written by

Jim Seward

Tim Begalka

Incarceration rates

Largest decreases in prison population from 2007 to 2012 and corresponding changes in crime rate: 1. California: population down 25 percent, crime down 11 percent 2. Hawaii: population down 20 percent, crime down 25 percent 3. Massachusetts: Population down 20 percent, crime down 10 percent 4. Connecticut: Population down 19 percent, crime down 13 percent 5. Rhode Island: Population down 19 percent, crime rate flat Largest increases in prison population from 2007-2012 and corresponding changes in crime rate:1. West Virginia: Population up 13 percent, crime down 4 percent 2. Pennsylvania: Population up 10 percent, crime down 10 percent 3. Illinois: Population up 8 percent, crime down 14 percent 4. Alabama: Population up 5 percent, crime down 11 percent 5. South Dakota: Population up 5 percent, crime up 20 percent

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A national analysis shows that South Dakota’s crime rate rose higher than any state in the nation during the five years leading up to the passage of a massive criminal justice reform package last year.

The jump comes alongside a prison population increase of 5 percent from 2007 through 2012.

State officials say the numbers are a further indication that the state needs to continue to focus on alternatives to prison time for nonviolent offenders.

Reforms adopted last year shifted the focus of the criminal justice system away from prison time through an array of alternative programs, some of which are just starting to kick in.

On Jan. 1, for example, probationers became eligible to earn time off their period of supervision for good behavior. Parolees have been earning credit for good behavior since August.

Jim Seward, Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s legal counsel and chairman of the committee overseeing the law’s implementation, said the fact that thousands of parolees have earned time off their sentence through good behavior is an early sign that the state’s “smart on crime” approach will pay off.

Focusing on treatment and incentives for improvement can carry a greater return for public safety investments, he said.

“It’s certainly too early to say if we’ll be successful across the board, but there are areas where we can see improvement,” Seward said.

Crime reduction

The study from the The Pew Charitable Trusts' Public Safety Performance Project, released in late December, charts states by their relative increase or decrease in prison population and their increase or decrease in crime through 2012.

What the study shows, according to Adam Gelb of the Pew Charitable Trusts, is that there is no direct link between locking up offenders and lowering crime rates. The relationship between crime rates and the prison population is complex, Gelb said.

“The conventional wisdom for the past century has been that in order to cut crime, you had to build more prisons,” Gelb said. “States are now shattering that myth. It’s not only possible to reduce incarceration rates and crime at the same time, more than half the states are doing it.”

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In the states with the 10 largest decreases in imprisonment rates, the crime rate dropped an average of 12 percent. In states with an increasing prison population, the rate dropped 10 percent.

The largest drops in crime came in Hawaii and Nevada. Both saw decreases of 25 percent, with incarceration rates lowered by 20 percent and 12 percent.

Only five states saw an increase in crime rates during that time. South Dakota led them with 20 percent. New Hampshire was close behind with 17 percent. No other state saw an increase higher than 3 percent.

“This shatters the myth that building more prisons is the only way to cut crime rates,” Gelb said. “When your crime rate and your imprisonment rate are increasing, it’s time for taxpayers to start thinking about wiser ways to spend public safety dollars.”

Earning time off

Changes built into the Public Safety Improvement Act took effect in July. At that point, the penalties for certain drug crimes dropped, as did the penalty for burglarizing an unoccupied structure.

The latter change is one of the main reasons Rep. Dan Kaiser, R-Aberdeen, cast one of the seven votes in the House opposing the act. “I am for minimizing victimless crimes. I am not for minimizing crimes where there are victims, which is what Senate Bill 70 did,” Kaiser said.

Other steps have come on a staggered schedule. The state has begun setting up drug and alcohol courts in several cities, two drug monitoring programs now test methamphetamine users, and more money is flowing for drug and alcohol evaluations and treatment.

Starting last week, probationers became eligible to earn time off sentences through good behavior.

Supervision is key

A major component of the crime bill’s success involves supervision of those who aren’t locked up, Seward said.

Probation and parole officers with fewer people to supervise can provide closer and more effective supervision, he said, which means early release from supervision for the well-behaved is crucial.

In July, parolees began earning discharge credits — 30 days off their supervision period for every 30 days of good behavior. From July through October, a total of 3,149 parolees earned credits, according to the Department of Corrections. More than 70 percent of parolees are earning time off their sentences each month.

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Meanwhile, the Unified Judicial System and Department of Social Services are determining which areas in South Dakota have the greatest need for treatment. The state has awarded contracts to 13 agencies to expand drug and alcohol programs to 500 additional parolees and probationers.

“It’s impressive to see the state employees all working together to make this happen,” Seward said.

In the months before the last legislative session, Seward and other members of a working group met with legislators and stakeholders to present comparisons of crime and imprisonment rates.

By the time the session came, legislators already had warmed to the idea that there could be less-costly ways to combat crime than locking up offenders.

As a result of the public safety reform, legislators must attach a statement detailing the financial effects to any bill that would increase the penalty for a crime, forcing an evidence-based approach to debate on crime.

In the past, Seward said, “we had no debate.”

“Legislators just took it as a given that we would deter the crime if we increased the penalty,” Seward said.

Too far reaching

Another legislative opponent of the Public Safety Improvement Act, Sen. Tim Begalka, R-Clear Lake, favors alternatives to incarceration. “I really like the idea of drug courts and DWI courts so we don’t have so many people in the pen,” he says. But he was one of two senators to vote against the prison reforms measure because he felt it overreached.

“It was massive. There were so many different subjects included in one bill. Some of those things should have been separate bills.”

Cost to counties

Both Begalka and Kaiser said they are concerned the state’s effort to reduce the prison population will push more costs to counties.

“The same people may be arrested. But instead of sitting in prison for a year and a half, they’ll sit in a county jail,” Kaiser said. “Every county commissioner I’ve ever talked to says they are splitting pennies at the county level to pay for roads and law enforcement and other things people want, and now the state is adding a new burden.”

While there is no evidence yet judges in Minnehaha County are sentencing offenders to jail instead of to prison, according to County Commissioner Jeff Barth, county officials are watching closely to see whether that occurs, and Barth said state criminal justice officials have not moved on the county’s request to expedite sentencings.

“We have people lounging in our jail waiting for pre-sentencing investigations for weeks at a time,” Barth said. “They wait months for a psycho/sexual evaluation by a state psychologist before sentencing. If they are going to the pen, let’s send them there and not clutter up our jail with extra folks.”